“Not everything in a marriage is documented.”
Amanda nodded.
“Fortunately, some things are.”
She played the recording.
Brenda’s voice entered the mediation room.
“Let her keep paying.
When her money runs out, she’ll leave on her own.”
Then Thomas answered.
“She won’t leave.
Emma always fixes everything.”
No one moved.
The mediator looked down at his notes.
Thomas’s attorney removed his glasses.
On the screen, Thomas’s face lost color.
“That was taken out of context,” he said.
Amanda did not argue.
She let the recording continue.
Brenda complained that I had begun asking too many questions about expenses.
Thomas told her not to worry.
Then came the sentence none of us had heard during the first review because it appeared later in the file.
“As long as the house stays calm,” Thomas said, “I don’t care whose money handles it.”
That sentence ended his performance.
